Plastic surgery operations to the nose, i.e., rhinoplasty, are performed to treat nasal trauma, congenital nasal defects, cosmetic preferences, and the like. Rhinoplasty is the most frequently performed cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States. Most rhinoplasty and/or nasal reconstruction operations involve reshaping as well as strengthening a patient's nasal pyramid. A nasal pyramid includes both sides of the nose bridge at the nasal bone, upper lateral cartilage, and lower lateral cartilage sections.
Unfortunately, follow-up revision surgery is often necessary to correct post-operative nasal deviation after rhinoplasty. This is an obviously undesirable result due to the added emotional and physical trauma and added overall cost of the procedure. The post-operative deviation can result from repeated and unintended contact with the nose, such as sleeping postures that place biased forces on the nose, and the like. Deviation can also result from an inherent tendency for a nose to grow in the deviated direction.
One attempt to reduce post-operative nasal deviation is by applying a compressive force to the nasal pyramid. One compound splint sold under the trade name DENVER SPLINT by Shippert Enterprises, LTD of Centennial, Colo. provides a rigid base layer to follow the contour of the nose bridge. (See generally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,452 to Shippert). This type of splint provides little or no generalized compression, and is only used for about one week post-operatively as standard procedure. Also, rigid thermoplastic nasal splints, such as one sold under the trade name AQUAPLAST by Smith & Nephew Rolyan, Inc. of Menomonee Falls, Wis., can provide limited stabilization and protection to a nasal pyramid, post-rhinoplasty.
Despite these attempts in the art to improve rhinoplasty outcomes, further advances are possible and desirable.